Paleo-Pabappa

Paleo-Pabappa is a term for the Patuupʷto language spoken in Paba until it was replaced by the Gold language, which then split into Babakiam and the Macro-Pabap languages. Babakiam is the ancestor of Pabappa and Poswa, which spread out and replaced the relics of both Paleo-Pabappa and the Macro-Pabap languages.

Grammar

Paleo-Pabappa has the highest number of noun classes of any language on the planet; these are used both in the traditional way and with verbs to create compounds such as "run like a rabbit"; this is why there are many classifiers for specific types of animals.

Noun classes

Paleo-Pabappa did not have an established syllable order such as that used by Late Andanese.

Paleo-Pabappa retains the single-consonant forms of the CV classifiers, which appear only before stems beginning in vowels. In Proto-Kava and proto-Eastern Subumpamese, these were replaced with reduplicated CVC forms, and in the Gold language, they were replaced with the ordinary CV classifiers but later disappeared entirely.

Animate Group I

1. pu: Pregnant women and epicenes; verbs of emotion.

   Becomes p- before vowel-initial stems.

2. pi: Adult females; worms.

   Becomes p- before vowel-initial stems and takes epicene verb agreement.

3. tə: Adult males; rabbits and hares.

   Becomes p- before vowel-initial stems and takes epicene verb agreement.

Note that the feminine prefix pi- is historically cognate to the m- group below, which by the time of paleo-Pabappa had come to be a category for children rather than women. In fact, the prefix was originally identical with mi- "milk; breast", but underwent a sound change due to being always used as a prefix whereas mi- could also appear in standalone form.

In addition to losing their vowels before vowel stems, these three stems disappear entirely before p-stems on the conditions that:

1. The p-stem is not another noun. (For example, one must say pipèpu "her crab", not *pèpu.)

Animate Group II

1. ni: Maidens, young girls; certain female body parts; ducklike birds.

   Becomes m- before stems beginning in u- and ń- before other vowel-initial stems.

2. mu: Young children; most other birds.

   Becomes m- before vowel-initial stems.; appears as mə- in a few words.

3. pe: Crustaceans; sea life.

   Becomes m- before vowel-initial stems.

Animate Group III

Nouns in this group must be padded with one of the human identifier prefixes in order to form disyllabic prefixes.

1. pa: Sheep and goats.
2. ńe: Snakes.
3. hə: Frogs, amphibians.

   Becomes f- before vowel-initial stems.

4. li: Turtles.
5. la: Mice and rodents.
6. ča: Flying insects.
7. ke: Cats.
8. po: Ants, crawling insects.

   Becomes p- before vowel-initial stems and takes epicene verb agreement.

"Po-" is historically identical to the prefix for pregnant women and epicenes, but was never of the same level on the animacy hierarchy. <---POSSIBLY JUST DELETE THIS ENTIRELY FROM ALL LANGUAGES

These prefixes can also be used to denote the habitats of the animals. e.g. ča = sky, hə = swamp, ke = forest, la & ńe = underground

Inanimate Group I

Most words in this group are words for plants or objects made from plants.

1. ši: Some types of trees.
2. hə: Corals.
3. ti: Flower blossoms.

   Contracts to t- before a vowel.

4. ma: Very tall grasses.
5. pe: Money; some grasses.
6. mu: Fruit; buildings.
7. me: Alcohol, soap, and mixed formulas.
8. fo: Some types of grass.
9. pu: Succulent fruit; grass, clover, small plants; round objects; some trees;
10. nə: Claws, sharp objects; certain fruits.
11. fu: Wind and air; claws and other hard body parts.

Inanimate Group II

This group contains body parts and certain things typically held close to one's person.

1. ti: Teeth.

   Contracts to t- before a vowel.

2. ko: Bones.
3. ni: Feminine hygiene products.
4. i: Edible body parts.
5. to: Blood and bodily humors.
6. pa: Clothes.
7. fo: Some words for clothes.
8. mi: Milk, inedible body parts.

The prefix mi- is historically identical with the feminine prefix pi-. The "teeth" prefix ti- is historically homophonous with, but not related to, the "flower blossom" prefix.

Inanimate Group III

This group contains landforms and other objects most usually found in the locative rather than as the agent or patient of a verb.

1. ə: Open places.
2. o: Furniture and land formations.
3. po: Oceanographic formations.
4. mu: Fruit; buildings.
5. pe: Ocean and sea.
6. ča: Tall trees; the sky.
7. pi: Water, weather.
8. me: Kingdoms and empires.
9. pu: Celestial objects.

The prefix ča- "trees; sky" is in fact a single morpheme even going back to the days of Mumba, and not a merger of a velar with a palatal.

Inanimate Group IV

This group contains handheld objects and alienable possessions.

1. yo: Handheld objects; coins.
2. ši: Certain other handheld objects.
3. ri: Some other handheld objects.
4. hə: Corals; still other handheld objects.
5. ke: Wheels.
6. pu: Round objects; arrows, weapons, and handheld tools.
7. a: Whips.

The prefix ke- can be used for large circular objects; yo- for small ones, and pu- for spheres.

Uses of noun classes

Note that some noun classes had little use as nouns; for example li- "turtle" was only used in a few words for turtles. Instead, they were productive primarily as verbs, such as "to walk slowly", "to be hard", etc.

Later history of Paleo-Pabappa

Paleo-Pabappa did not evolve into Pabappa. Instead, Paba's people shifted to speaking the Gold language as it was introduced from AlphaLeap, and quickly developed a distinctive dialect of it that ultimately came to be called Pabappa. However, Paleo-Pabappa still survived inside Subumpam, since the two nations of northeastern Subumpam had joined the Subumpamese Union after seceding from Paba. The other Subumpamese people considered Paleo-Pabappa to be just another of the many Subumpamese languages, as it shared similarities with neighboring languages such as Galà and proto-Eastern Subumpamese.

Paleo-Pabappa split into three languages: one for each of the two Pabap nations in Subumpam, and one for people in Paba who had not yet shifted to speaking Gold. However, Subumpam was soon wiped out in a catastrophic war, and Paba's strong national government drove the remnant speakers of Paleo-Pabappa into learning what was to eventually become Pabappa.

Raspara language

The Raspara people may have spoken a "Military Pabap" language derived from Merar, which would mean that Merar was a branch of paleo-Pabappa.